


Surrender

by BeaconHill



Category: Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Never Made It To Dantooine, The Dark Side of the Force
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21796273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeaconHill/pseuds/BeaconHill
Summary: Bastila's plan was to go straight to Dantooine after escaping Taris. Revan has other ideas.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	1. Blockade Runners

"We did it!" Bastila said. The blue tunnel of hyperspace flashed by outside. We'd run the Sith blockade. We were free! Bastila actually hugged me, twirling me around like I wasn't a head taller than her. "Great flying!"

"Hey, you weren't too bad a copilot yourself!" I grinned, smoothing back my hair.

The steel deck rang with Riva's footsteps, running back from the gun turret. Bastila and I let go, though it was hard to take my eyes off her. She was still wearing that mercenary getup Riva had disguised her with – tight, sleeveless body armor, bright fabric over shiny synthweave, and a red bandana over her hair. It looked good, though I was glad she'd stopped the thick Rim spacer accent. It was very convincing, but it was weird hearing Bastila Shan talk like a smuggler.

I waved at Riva as she entered. She was dressed like Mission – a teenage street slicer. She pulled it off surprisingly well. "Good shooting!"

"Thanks! But I couldn't have done any of it without my pilot."

"You're the star of the show, Carth," Bastila said, walking up to a console. "I'll raise Dantooine on the comms. Tell them we're alive, now that we're past the Imperial jammers."

"Hang on," Riva said. "Don't call the Jedi just yet. We need to talk first."

"Riva!" Bastila glared at her, but she didn't seem to care, opening a panel and nonchalantly fiddling with it. "It's important we contact the Jedi as soon as possible. We can talk later." Bastila returned to her console – only for the screens to suddenly go black. It had turned off. Bastila blinked. "What?"

Riva smirked at Bastila, smug and haughty. She'd never acted like that before. Pinched between her fingers was a little piece of bright blue plastic with two metal prongs – a fuse. She'd disconnected the console, on purpose.

"What are you doing?" Bastila asked, her voice incredulous, offended.

"I said not to call the Jedi," Riva tossed the fuse onto the counter, and it skidded into the corner. "Right now, there's no one in the galaxy but us who knows I'm alive. We'll be keeping it that way."

"Dantooine is heavily guarded!" Bastila said. "They'll shoot us down if we don't get clearance to land!"

"Lucky we're not going to Dantooine," Riva said. "Carth, set a course for Ravna 4."

"That's an Imperial world!" I said. "Why go there?"

"I have a hideout there."

I raised my eyebrow. What?

"Specialist Juno!" Bastila chastised Riva a lot, but this time, something was wrong. She sounded scared. "The Republic needs you! Now is really not the time to go back to smuggling—"

Riva's smirk got even wider. "Oh, Bastila. Ever the optimist. You know that's not what this is."

Bastila was paler than Davik's corpse. She pulled her lightsaber from her belt and lit it, moving with robotic jerkiness instead of her usual grace. She held it close to her body, the eerie glow making her look even more fearful.

Riva spread her hands – only for two more lightsabers to fall from her sleeves and light up in her hands. One was blue – the other, Sith red. "If it's a rematch you're after, I will gladly provide," she said, the words sharp. Zaalbar and Canderous stepped through the door, and my stomach fell. They were loyal to Riva, I realized. On her side. "But wouldn't you rather spare yourself the pain, and surrender? Malak isn't here to save you this time."

"What's happening?" I breathed. I pulled my blasters in slow motion, like I was swimming through water. I didn't understand. She was betraying us, but why? How? And Riva couldn't be a Jedi – I'd read her service records, she was just a conscript smuggler!

Riva flicked her fingers, and my blasters flew from my hands, soaring over Canderous's shoulder and landing with a clatter in the hallway outside. "You want to know what's going on? Fine. I'll give you the short version. The Jedi tried to brainwash me, and it didn't work." I could almost feel the power and malevolence on the air, like a smell or a glow or a static charge. "I am Darth Revan."

"How?" I breathed. "I don't believe you!"

"Bastila knows," she said, her voice tauntingly light. "Just look at her. It's written all over her face."

It was. Bastila tried unconvincingly to hide her terror, gritting her teeth and raising her lightsaber. But Riva just smiled.

"Come on, Bastila. You know me. You know I don't want to hurt you." She stepped closer, so close their blades were almost locked. "Quite the opposite, in fact," she murmured, low and sultry. "If we fight, I'll have to kill you, and that would be such a waste..." Her eyes locked to Bastila's, her aura tightening, her voice suddenly hard and commanding. "Surrender. Drop your lightsaber. Now."

Bastila flinched backwards, dropping her lightsaber, the blades sputtering out. It landed on the floor with a clunk.

Riva – Darth Revan – smiled, shutting off her own lightsabers. "Thank you, Bastila," she said, taking one step closer and then hugging her. It struck me how incongruously short Riva was. Shouldn't she be taller? Bastila seemed to have no idea how to react, just standing there, blushing and staring into space. Revan let go, picking up Bastila's lightsaber before turning to me. "Carth, you're the last one left, unarmed and alone. You know you can't win. Surrender."

I swallowed. Tears were forming in my eyes. Of all the people to betray me... Riva? Like this? "No," I said through the lump in my throat. I got into a fighting stance, balling my hands into fists. "I'll never surrender."

Revan sighed, shook her head. "Ever the faithful soldier. And here I was thinking you might have gotten a little fond of me. Oh, well. We'll talk on Ravna 4."

Then she snapped her fingers, and I slumped to the floor like a droid with its core pulled out. The world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I've gotten a little long-winded lately. This story, I'll try to work on brevity. My goal is to tell a complete story in three or four chapters, each a thousand words or less – shorter than my most recent chapter of Revan's Survivor, all put together.
> 
> I'm surprised I haven't seen Revan remembering and then jumping the rails quite this early before.


	2. Learned Helplessness

I woke with a start, visions of betrayal and surrender and _Darth Revan_ dancing before my eyes.  
  
 _Oh, Force._  
  
I was lying on a comfortable bed in what looked almost like a hotel room. Revan's safehouse. She had me.  
  
The room was ringed with curtains. I wrenched a pair open. Outside was a barren wasteland. The wind was blowing hard, the air so thick with red sand and dark smoke I could barely see the sun. I shivered. There'd be no escape on foot from here.  
  
But where were the others? I yanked open curtain after curtain until I found a window that looked over a large living space on the floor below. Mission was playing a hologame on a fancy projector, while Bastila lay on a red leather couch, reading a datapad. She caught my eye and waved up to me. They looked fine, and for a moment, my spirits lifted. They really were all right.  
  
But for how long? We had to get out of here.  
  
I ran to the door, rattled the knob. Locked. Of course. I looked to the lamp, then the window.  
  
It smashed brilliantly, huge shards of glittering glass raining down onto the flowerbeds, the lamp landing with a clang on the polished stone floor. I jumped down after it, landing gracefully on my feet.  
  
Then Mission screamed.  
  
"Shh! It's me, Carth! We've got to get out of here!"  
  
"Why would I go with you?" Mission scrambled to her feet, backing away.  
  
I gaped at her. "To save the Republic? To escape Revan?"  
  
"Why would I _care_ about the Republic? You've _seen_ what Taris was like!" She was disbelieving, faintly disgusted. "And I... trust Riva. She's not going to hurt me."  
  
"Her Sith destroyed Taris!"  
  
" _Malak_ 's Sith destroyed Taris! And Revan hates him as much as I do! She's gonna kill him! I mean, there's no way the Republic's gonna win with Revan back and Bastila gone!"  
  
"But... Mission, I'm your friend!"  
  
" _Riva's_ my friend. You... were just there."  
  
"Okay. Fine. Stay, then." I turned away, disgusted, looking to Bastila. "But _we_ have to get out of here! The Republic needs you!"  
  
"Carth, there's _no way out_!" Bastila said. "The hangar is locked tight, and Revan has the codes! And you know you won't get far on foot! Just surrender – don't make Revan hurt you!"  
  
"We can't just give up!"  
  
"You don't know what she can do!" Bastila sounded distraught, scared, almost _pleading_. "When we attacked her on the _Infinite_ , we had a whole squad of Republic soldiers just like you! And Revan just... _waved her hand_... and all their necks snapped! They all died just like that!"  
  
"But you can beat her! You've done it before!"  
  
"No, I can't! I didn't – _I was losing!_ " Her voice was cracking, her eyes wide and red, her head shaking frantically. "She was _toying_ with me, or I would have been dead before—" She took a few deep breaths. "Malak betrayed his master. He fired on the _Infinite_ while Revan was distracted. He blew up the whole bridge, and she was standing in the wrong place." I could see tears sparkling on her cheeks. "That's it. That's all it was. Dumb luck and betrayal!"  
  
"So she _can_ be beaten—"  
  
"Oh, yes! I forgot about your bank of _capital ship turbolasers_. You go warm those up, and we can kill her for good!" Bastila started to _giggle_ , a strangely high sound. "Oh, who am I kidding. She survived that anyway!"  
  
"Bastila, I..." There was a pit in my stomach. "Maybe you're not who I thought you were, but we have to—"  
  
"Fine. Fine! Don't listen to me! Go _punch out Darth Revan_!" I flinched back – her fear had flashed to rage in an instant. I'd never heard her – or _any_ Jedi – talk like that. And her fake Rim twang had returned, harsh and intimidating. "Good luck, you schutta! I'll watch!"  
  
For a second, I just stood there, dumbstruck. And then I heard a voice that made me spin around.  
  
"I wouldn't give up on our captain so soon," said Revan, standing in the doorway, cape billowing behind her. "I haven't even given my recruitment pitch!"  
  
She had changed since I last saw her. Her skin had paled to a colorless, sickly-looking gray marked by lighter veins and scars. Her eyes were milky, a haze obscuring their once brilliant blue, and an unsettling yellow glow shone from her pupils. She'd looked almost like a teenager before, but her turn to the Dark Side had aged her years. Her youth and beauty were gone – but they'd been replaced with a terrifying aura.  
  
She wore her full cloak and armor – the hood was down and the mask was off, but everything else looked just like the holos. Her gauntlets and chestplate sparkled a strange purplish-red. The whole outfit glittered from a million buckles and rings and clips nestled among the leather and cloth. It was ostentatious, _almost_ ridiculous. And yet she looked perfectly natural in it.  
  
Darth Revan, the Empress of the Sith, stood before me in her full regalia. I'd had no _idea_ how terrifying this would be.  
  
"But Carth, you have made a mess of the place, haven't you?" Her smirk was too big and too crooked for the face that had once been my friend's. "I'm disappointed."  
  
She flicked her fingers, and I was yanked into the air, my feet gripped by an invisible force dangling me upside-down. I yelled, flailing around, trying to escape, but her grip was unshakable.  
  
"Please don't hurt him," Bastila whispered.  
  
"Relax. He's fine." Revan said as I floated toward her, trying desperately to hide my fear. She ran her hand through my hair, a cruel smile on her face. "You do know I like you, right? If I didn't, I'd have killed you long ago. But you are being a pest..." She sighed. "We'll talk once I've cleaned up your mess."  
  
Once more, I fell into cold unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Revan is meant to be much the same as _Revan's Survivor_ 's, if she were completely lost to the Dark Side. In that story, as much as Riva loves to make you squirm she doesn't want to hurt you. Here? That just adds to the fun. And that's really all that has to change to make her _terrifying_.
> 
> The differences can actually be subtle at times. She's still in control of herself – she won't put cruelty above her goals and her plans, and her intelligence and her strategic mind are entirely undimmed. For instance, she knows that killing Carth here will turn Bastila against her, so she didn't. But neither does she have any reservations about terrifying Bastila into compliance or humiliating Carth.


End file.
